sea

Authorities seek ways of deterring hikers from Mount Albion Falls

The “meat-loving” marine creature that ate at the legs of a Melbourne Australia teenager has been identified as a flesh-eating sea flea, known as a lysianassid amphipod.

July 14, 2017

Marine biologist Dr Genefor Walker-Smith said the creatures, which left 16-year-old Sam Kanizay with significant bleeding from his legs, were a small, scavenging crustacean that usually fed on dead fish or sea birds.

Amphipods are related to shrimp and prawns but are smaller in size, ranging from 6-13mm. They are not venomous and their bites do not cause any lasting damage.

They are commonly known as sea fleas or sea lice, although Walker-Smith noted that sea lice was more commonly used to refer to isopods, a different type of crustacean.

Kanizay said on Monday he was soaking his legs at Brighton beach when he felt the creatures attack, causing wounds that would not stop bleeding.

September 17, 2016

“By the time walked across the sand about 20 metres … I looked down and noticed that I had blood all over my ankles and feet,” he said. (Source: The Guardian)

Meanwhile, Hamilton fire prevention officer Steve McArthur said a total of 10 hikers needed assistance getting out of Albion Falls after an “excessive amount of water” came Monday afternoon. No one was injured, he said.

Albion Falls has been at the centre of the public and political backlash lately over people ignoring safety warnings and trespassing.

This has led the city to bolster safety features, including adding $75,000 worth of fencing and increasing ticketing enforcement of trespassers. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Protests disrupt Energy East pipeline hearings in Montreal

Protesters disrupted the first day of the National Energy Board hearings for the proposed Energy Eat pipeline in Montreal.

Montreal mayor Denis Coderre was the first speaker but before he could start a protester charged at the commissioners.

Security stopped him but others joined in and the NEB was forced to cancel Monday’s hearing.

“We’ll keep in touch to see if we can come tomorrow but again I think the NEB, as I said last Friday, should rethink the way this thing is happening right now,” says Coderre.

Coderre is against the pipeline and believes the NEB commissioners may have been unfairly influenced.

Others like those in New Brunswick, whose refining business would boom, are for the pipeline.

Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt says the pipeline will likely go depending on whether your region is in or out of the oil business.

“Some people are saying look we support the pipeline just build it somewhere else. You also have groups who say we don’t want any pipeline built anywhere because we want to shut down the oil sands.”

However, the hearings aren’t political in nature, they are fact-finding because Parliament will make the ultimate decision.

Mps will have to weigh the economic benefits of building and operating a 4,500 kilometre pipeline funneling domestic crude to domestic refineries rather than buying and selling oil to and from foreigners and if it’s worth the environmental risk. (CTV News)